3D printed organs come a step closer

For years, scientists have been able to “print” types of human tissue using a 3D printer, but in a significant leap forward by US and Australian researchers they can now make that tissue survive on its own, The Guardian reported.

Until now a major barrier to them moving from printing tiny sheets of tissue to entire 3D organs is that they hadn’t figured out how to develop the blood vessels that provide cells with nutrients and oxygen, and allow them to excrete waste.

This essential process is called “vascularisation” and is necessary if researchers are to ever prevent cells from dying so they can grow large, transplantable organs.

But in a major medical breakthrough, researchers from Sydney and Harvard universities have managed to 3D bio-print capillaries, the tiny channels that allow vascularisation to take place so that cells can sustain themselves and survive.

Using a high-tech “bio-printer”, the researchers fabricated tiny, interconnected fibres to serve as the mould for the artificial blood vessels.

They then covered the 3D printed structure with a cell-rich protein-based material, which was solidified by shining light on it.

Lastly they removed the bio-printed fibres to leave behind a network of tiny capillaries coated with human endothelial cells, which formed stable blood capillaries in less than a week.

However, printing organs may still be a couple of decades away.

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